1. Field
The present invention relates to a robot joint driving apparatus and a robot having the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a robot joint driving apparatus provided with an improved joint driving structure and a robot having the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, various robots such as biped walking robots and quadruped walking robots have been developed for household, industrial and military use.
These robots perform various actions in addition to running and walking, which is achieved with joints. The joints can be driven by using a motor and a reduction unit connected to the motor or by using a wire.
The joint driving scheme using the reduction unit is limited as to the arrangement of the driving apparatus, which causes severe noise in operation and results in a low driving efficiency. In particular, the joint driving scheme has poor reverse-drivability, so that the robot-human interaction may not be effectively achieved.
The joint driving scheme using a wire has been recently introduced since the joint driving scheme using the wire can solve the problems occurring in the joint driving scheme using the reduction unit.
As one example of the joint driving scheme using the wire, an actuator having the structure identical to that of muscles of a human is used. In the joint driving scheme using the wire, the wire is wound around a pulley connected to the motor and is pulled such that a joint rotates, thereby operating a link connected to the joint.